Consumer revolving credit resurged in May as Americans tacked on $5.6 billion in net new debt, mostly credit card debt, after dipping by $400 million in the prior month. Revolving consumer credit has now reached a record $961.8 billion and is growing by 7.1% per annum. Based on revised figures, revolving debt declined by 0.5% in April after growing by 7.4% in March. According to data released by the Federal Reserve, total revolving credit has expanded by $70 billion over the past twelve months. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the first quarter was about $815 billion or roughly 85% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). Store and gas credit cards had about $109 billion in outstandings at year-end 2007. At the end of April, Americans were $2571 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
May 08 Apr 08 Mar 08 Feb 08 Jan 08 Dec 07
GRWTH: 7.1% -0.5 7.4 5.3 7.1 2.8
$OWED: $961.8 956.2 956.6 950.7 947.0 941.4
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 7/8/08;
For complete historical data, visit CardData (www.carddata.com)
